Son tried to save Navy shipmates after collision – Orange County Register

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and TAMMY WEBBER

YOKOSUKA, Japan — The mother of a U.S. Navy sailor who survived a direct hit to his sleeping berth during a collision at sea said her son kept diving to try to save his shipmates until the flooded berth began running out of air pockets, while others — believing the ship was under attack — hurried to man the guns.

Mia Sykes of Raleigh, North Carolina, told The Associated Press on Sunday that her 19-year-old son, Brayden Harden, was knocked out of his bunk by the impact, and water immediately began filling the berth, after their destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship four times its size off the Japanese coast.

Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, speaks during a press conference on the status of the damaged USS Fitzgerald and search and rescue efforts for seven missing Fitzgerald…